The half-life of the radioactive element Radium-226 is 1590 years. This means that after 1590 years only half of the original radioactive material will have disintegrated. Because the
rate of decay is proportional to the amount of material present, the function that describes this decay will be exponential.

If the initial amount of Radium-226 present was 100g, write an exponential function, call it R(t), that describes the decay over tyears, at a decay rate of k.

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April 17th 2008, 05:12 PM

Jhevon

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snowboarder

The half-life of the radioactive element Radium-226 is 1590 years. This means that after 1590 years only half of the original radioactive material will have disintegrated. Because the
rate of decay is proportional to the amount of material present, the function that describes this decay will be exponential.

If the initial amount of Radium-226 present was 100g, write an exponential function, call it R(t), that describes the decay over tyears, at a decay rate of k.

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where is the half life.

From there it is simple. the equation is of the form

you know what is right?

I hope you can derive the formulas I gave you above. If not, it is a good exercise to try